Jan 12 2009
Review: The Leader in Me, How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness One Child at a Time by Stephen R. Covey
If you work in a large organization you might have heard phrases bandied about such as “leadership training” or “team building.” Your employer might have invested in a customizable package of group exercises from consultants or distributed their books. One of the most prolific consultants is Utah-based Stephen Covey, a Harvard MBA who also holds a doctorate of religious education from Brigham Young. That is why your consulting program might be referred in the oversimplified moniker: Covey Training.
Dr. Covey’s leadership principles are divided into eight habits that have not only been applied to the workplace, but also to raising teenagers. His most famous title, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People has sold over 15 million copies for nearly twenty years. Covey’s seven habits are:
• Habit 1: Be Proactive: Principles of Personal Choice
• Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind: Principles of Personal Vision
• Habit 3: Put First Things First: Principles of Integrity & Execution
• Habit 4: Think Win/Win: Principles of Mutual Benefit
• Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood: Principles of Mutual Understanding
• Habit 6: Synergize: Principles of Creative Cooperation
• Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw: Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal
Four years ago, Covey published another book around an eighth habit: Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs. His latest book: The Leader in Me, How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness One Child at a Time talks about how these eight habits have been brought into public school classrooms in the United States and abroad.
Much of the content in The Leader in Me is devoted to the application of the eight habits in a single school, the A.B. Combs Elementary School in Forsythe County (near Winston Salem) North Carolina, over the past ten years. The school is in a district that is not extraordinarily advantaged in an economic way, and it was in danger of closing. Implementing the Covey habits was not easy, and it took considerable time. The principal did not get immediate buy-in from the faculty, so she started with a single pilot class in each grade. At first, the habits were taught to the teachers, but the real successes came when they were taught to the students.
The habits were used to instill leadership qualities in each and every student, something that was not done in the schools that I attended in my youth. Teachers were instructed to make the effort to find ways that each student, regardless of their academic or athletic strengths, or their boldness or shyness, could be leaders. As one example, students who were strong in one skill were asked to be tutors or to give presentations to the entire class. These habits were also used to encourage students to respect each other for their best qualities, and not mock them for their differences or disadvantages. The habit-based instruction is meant to build self-confidence as well as create a safe and secure school. When these three “s’s” are in place, test scores, the political measure of success, rise. And parents and potential employers appreciate not only the academic skills, but also the interpersonal communications skills.
But the difference between bringing the Covey habits into schools is that students do not usually stay at the same school from kindergarten through twelfth grade. They might be under the umbrella of the habits at the elementary school, but not the middle school or the secondary school. The gains from implementing these good habits in the earlier grades could be lost. Even Covey alludes to this point, and he discusses how the habits were first introduced and reinforced in kindergarten, by teachers who did not have the added burden of dealing with standardized tests.
I also learned that it takes a confident principal to make the habits succeed, especially when there is no direction from the superintendent’s office. And while parents and politicians appreciate a successful educator, she must also forget about the jealousy that is likely to be expressed by her colleagues. Principals are more mobile than teachers and they want to work in the schools that will give the largest budget or the most executive authority. So, the principal must not only be effective at habit forming among teachers and students; she must also be an effective organizational politician.
The Leader in Me is a great guide for such principals, or for teachers who aspire to be in a principal’s chair one day. It could also help the school district superintendent and human resources director write the job description for a highly effective principal. If you’re a parent who is concerned about your child’s education, and you want to send a message to your local schools, then buy your superintendent a copy of this book.
